One of the sectors undergoing reconstruction by the profit sector of capitalism is the advertising industry that markets and sells sex in order to get people to buy their products. This section of capitalism believes in the status quo of family life and raising children that they believe become part of the worker chain eventually when they grow up. The marketing of sex has become very profitable in a capitalist society. If it’s not using the sexual triggers that make a certain car look sexy, it sells the fact that women will automatically flock to the driver of their new automobile as if it is a sex magnet. Singer focuses on the addictions that make capitalism work. Mostly from the predictability you get from someone with a habit or addictive personality. Criminals, in that sense, also help the bigger criminals with their money laundering and mafia style agenda that is formed in any capitalist society. Lets face it the one thing you can say about all capitalist societies is that they are based on greed and the profitability of humans in general. The one thing we keep seeing that is funded regularly in all states of the Western world right now is prisons. Prisons are highly funded projects that never have a problem receiving Washington’s dollars. Not only that our wonderful District Attorneys make a career for themselves by taking cases that allow them to put massive amounts of people in to jail cells. Many of the criminals face lifetime sentences, or (if your state supports it) the death penalty. Most of the courts are all political based rulings that when you look at it from the wrong angle or just stare too long at the prison populations rising numbers, you see there must be something more substantial going on here. I digress.
The other sector undergoing even more reconstruction is the drugs that help treat AIDS and other sexual diseases. This is a real problem for society today that wants to engage in sexual activity. They have to really make an effort to protect themselves with safe-sex practices. Singer points out that by letting certain violations or prohibitions continue to flourish throughput the sexual market of capitalism, it also helps to sustain other sectors that are more important to keeping the profit margins flowing in key capitalist areas. She also brings up a good point about the legalization of prostitution not being a realistic discussion because to have that discussion means, she says, that you miss the point of what prostitution represents. I think she means that selling sex is more helpful for capitalism if you keep it criminalized rather than make it legal and take away the effects of keeping it as an addiction. Not only that, but the fact that women having sex with their husbands has always been in the pocket of capitalists already, so why threaten the fact that this is one avenue of keeping women sexually repressed. The last thing they would want is all of their wives suddenly sexually liberated and begin to understand what they should be receiving in the bedroom from their husbands has not been satisfactory for years. I mean then husbands might actually have to please their wives or acknowledge her importance for his success.
The way capitalism has changed and evolved for the sexual marketplace is by using all areas of the marketplace to sell sex. They have phone-sex, party lines, prostitution, message therapy, in-home services, and of course more pornography than you could possibly need on the web. Of course, there are hundreds of local clubs featuring topless or totally nude dancers and private booths for an extra buck. Just look at the way sex has a way of circulating through our capitalist society in just the clubs alone, with dance floors, stripper poles, booths and chairs, D.J.’s and announcers, drink minimums that can include alcohol or at least beer and wine, waitresses, video games, pool tables. There is also porno videos being sold at your local video stores. There are sex shops with lingerie and sex toys, gels, lotions, incense and aphrodisiacs. There is plenty of room for capitalizing on the sex industry.
Another point Singer focuses on is that prostitution serves the power structure for both the men obtaining sex and the women selling sex for profit. The man feels like he is in control of the females body and feels good about being able to afford to pay for sex, and maybe even be picky about the sex he receives, but the women feels like she is the one with true power because she is profiting from selling her body.
The S & M industry is one that profits a great deal from the sale of sexual toys and devices that can add up to be an incredible amount of money. The devices are expensive, including a lot of leather gear that is worn by both parties.
I think Singer analyzes the sexual practices of society and the unlimited profits that is generated by them in order to prove that keeping their status as repressed in the eyes of society is still better for the capitalists free market of the industries.
Contemporary society will continue to find new ways to express themselves and their individuality when it comes to sex. We see topless cleaning agencies or girls stripping while giving you the local weather reports in your area. Recently, one girl even auctioned off her virginity for over a million dollars in Las Vegas where it is legal. Then, of course, lets not forget the sextuplets mom being offered over a million dollars for her to join the porno industry. That offer came with a personal trainer and babysitter for the kids along with free health care benefits. Sex sells and we all know it, and what’s more there is plenty of capital to go around for everyone in that field.
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